Tender Turkey Talk
That beautiful iconic roast bird evocative of Norman Rockwell honestly mainly exists in fiction. Those picture-perfect birds gracing the holiday table of that food catalogue are most often an illusion. As a food stylist, I know that often those birds in the photos are raw and simply painted with a toxic combination of shoe polish, vegetable oil, and soy sauce. The cavities are stuffed with aluminum foil and loaf bread. The temperature never remotely reaches anything other than the top end of the danger zone. It's really a recipe for failure, consistently promoting these beautiful birds so that cooks across the country are overwhelmingly disappointed when they pull out their less-than-picture-perfect birds on Thanksgiving.
Many years ago, my mother and I decided to give brining a try. Brining is a magical alchemy that can transform turkey into a moist delicious bird. Muscle fibers absorb liquid during the brining period. Some of this liquid is lost during cooking, but since the meat is more juicy at the start of cooking, it ends up juicier. Moisture loss is inevitable when you cook any type of muscle fiber. The heat causes the coiled proteins in the fibers to unwind and then join together with one another, resulting in shrinkage and moisture loss. According to friend and food scientist, Shirley Corriher, normally meat loses about 30 percent of its weight during cooking. But if you soak your turkey in brine first, it reduces the moisture loss during cooking to as little as 15 percent! I like to think of it as a glass filled above the rim.
Brining promotes a change in the structure of the proteins in the muscle. The salt causes protein strands to unwind--the technical term is denatured. This is the same chemical process that occurs when proteins are exposed to heat; when they unwind, they get tangled up with one another, forming a web that traps water. Salt is commonly used to give processed meats a better texture. Sugar has little if any effect on the texture of the meat, but it does add flavor and promotes better browning of the skin. Through brining, we cause a change in the state of the cells so that they draw and hold more water than before. As we cook the meat, the heated proteins will begin to draw in tighter and lose moisture, but, since the meat has more water in it, the overall result is less moisture is lost! For a very basic overnight (12 to 14 hour) brine, dissolve 1 cup Diamond Brand Crystal Kosher Salt per gallon of cold water brine in a large stockpot, if storing in the refrigerator, or an insulated cooler, if not. Two gallons of water will be sufficient for most birds; larger birds may require three gallons. Add the turkey and refrigerate for predetermined amount of time. If using a cooler, add ice or freezer packs to keep the bird very cold. Also, salts are different! Remember that 1 cup Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt = 3/4 cup Morton's Kosher Salt = 1/2 cup of table salt.
Virginia Willis’s Brined Roast Turkey Breast
1 cup kosher salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1-1/2 gallons cool water
1 whole, bone-in, skin-on turkey breast
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon very finely chopped fresh sage
1 teaspoon very finely chopped thyme
3 stalks celery, chopped
3 carrots, cut into chunks
3 onions, peeled and quartered
2-1/2 cups homemade chicken stock or reduced fat low sodium chicken broth, more if needed
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
Mix salt and sugar in water in large clean bucket or stockpot until completely dissolved. I also use a cooler and place it on the back porch, adding freezer packets to keep the liquid ice cold overnight. Set turkey breast in brine, making sure it is submerged. Cover and refrigerate overnight, up to 8 hours.
Remove the turkey breast from the brine. Pat dry and set aside. Place the butter in a bowl; add the sage and thyme. Season the butter well with freshly ground black pepper. Set aside.
Twenty minutes before roasting, adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees F.
Place the turkey on a clean work surface. With your hand, carefully release the skin on both breasts to form two pockets. Rub seasoned butter under the released skin. Any extra butter, massage on the outside of the skin.
Place the celery, carrot, and onion in a large roasting pan. Pour 1/2 cup of the chicken stock over pan bottom to prevent drippings from burning. Place the prepared turkey, skin side up, on top of the vegetables. Place turkey breast in the oven, wide neck end toward oven rear. Roast 15 minutes, then rotate roasting pan. Roast until skin turns golden, 15 minutes longer. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees F; continue to roast breast, rotating pan once, about halfway through cooking until internal temperature in deepest part of breast registers 160 to 165 degrees F, an additional 30 to 45 minutes.
Remove the pan from the oven and transfer the turkey breast to a cutting board. Cover the turkey loosely with aluminum foil. Place the remaining 2 cups of chicken stock in a medium saucepan. Add the reserved neck and wishbone and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer. Place the pan over medium high heat. To the pan drippings add the flour and stir until well combined. Strain the stock over the flour-vegetable combination and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to simmer and cook until thickened, 5 to 7 minutes. Strain the mixture into a medium saucepan, pressing on the vegetables to get every drop and all the flavor. Check and make sure the sauce is thick enough to coat a spoon, if not continue simmering the stock until the correct consistency is achieved. (If it’s too thick, add a little water or additional stock.)
Carve the turkey breast and plate on a warm platter. Add any juices that run into the moat to the gravy. Taste and adjust for seasoning with salt and pepper and serve.
Serves 6 to 8
Check out Virginia’s favorite kitchen products in the Kitchen & Home Gift Guide.
HopeSew on November 14, 2008 at 12:14 PM
Thanks for the nice explanation of the brining process. Can this recipe be adjusted to cook a whole turkey? How would you do that?
CABAL RMT on February 11, 2011 at 10:34 PM
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